Zweibruckeff (Lat. Bipontium; Fr. Deuxponts)

Description

Zweibruckeff (Lat. Bipontium; Fr. Deuxponts)

Zweibruckeff (Lat. Bipontium; Fr. Deuxponts), a city of Bavaria, in the Rhenish Palatinate, on the Erbach, 40 m. W. by S. of Spire; pop. in 1871, 8,395, three fourths of whom were Protestants. Its names, each meaning two bridges, are derived from the situation of its ancient castle between two bridges over the Erbach. The city consists of the Altstadt, Neustadt, and Untere Vorstadt, the finest of all. The most notable churches are the Alexanderskirche and the Karlskirche, built by Charles IX. of Sweden. The ducal palace, in the 17th century one of the most magnificent in Germany, was in 1868 converted into a palace of justice. The Little Chateau contains the national stud. There are a gymnasium and a school of trades. Cloth, silk, chiccory, machines, and other articles are manufactured. A celebrated series of the classics, called the Bipont editions, was published here in the latter part of the last century. About 2 m. from the city are the ruins of the château built by King Stanislas Leszczynski. - Zweibrucken was an independentcounty till 1394, when after the extinction of the local counts it formed part of the Palatinate. In 1410, after the division of the electoral territory on the death of the emperor and elector Rupert, it became a duchy under his third son Stephen, who founded the line of Pfalz-Zweibriicken. Charles Gustavus, an offspring of this house, in 1654 succeeded Queen Christina on the throne of Sweden, to which this duchy was annexed.

In 1718, after the death of Charles XII., it passed to the count palatine Gustavus Samuel Leopold of the Klenburg line; and as he left no issue, it subsequently reverted to the Birkenfeld line, the ancestors of the present Bavarian dynasty. It belonged to France from 1801 to 1814, when most of it was restored to Savaria, and the rest divided between Oldenburg, Saxe-Ooburg, and Hesse-Homburg.